


slow life

by softambrollins



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Fix-It, Fluff, Getting Together, Happy Ending, M/M, Post-Episode: s15e19 Inherit the Earth, Retirement
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:22:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27623342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softambrollins/pseuds/softambrollins
Summary: It's two weeks after Chuck's defeat when Cas finds Dean, sitting at the end of the dock, legs dangling over the edge, looking down at the blue-green water below.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Comments: 4
Kudos: 108





	slow life

It's two weeks after Chuck's defeat when Cas finds Dean, sitting at the end of the dock, legs dangling over the edge, looking down at the blue-green water below. He's wearing the same jacket that Cas last saw him in; the handprint's gone now but he'd left it unwashed for days until it was finally all over. 

Cas slowly lowers himself until he's sitting next to him. Dean glances across at him for a moment, a faint smile flitting over his lips. The golden, diaphanous sunlight settles over him, rendering his features soft and hazy and faded, like a familiar, well-worn dream. Their shoulders brush. The cool, fresh breeze blows over them. Dean closes his eyes for a second, breathes it in like he's breathing in this whole new world, like it lives inside him too now. Cas being here doesn't disturb the small, idyllic piece of the earth he's carved out for himself — it feels like he belongs right there, his body warm and solid right next to Dean's. 

"I've been waiting for you," Dean tells him, voice low and relaxed. Jack had said that it might take some time for everyone to come back. Dean had been suddenly unburdened, safe in the knowledge that Cas would find his way back eventually, the way he always did. It was like decades of tension he'd been carrying in his spine had loosened all at once.

Cas nods. "I know. I spoke to Jack. He told me what happened. And he told me where to find you."

Dean raises an impressed eyebrow but his smile is nostalgic, tender, feeling something close to pride. "Guess the kid's really all-knowing now, huh? Handy when you don't have GPS."

Cas laughs under his breath. 

"Where's Sam?" he asks casually, like they're just old friends catching up, like he didn't get swallowed up into nothingness along with Death herself and their adopted son isn't actually God now. And somehow it _works_. It feels like all of that happened a lifetime ago to totally different people. 

"He met up with Eileen about a week ago," Dean explains. "They're 'taking it slow' apparently, whatever that means, but they wanted to spend some quality time together. So they're on the road. Not hunting. Just seeing the sights. Doing normal people stuff. _Living_ , I guess."

"And you're here alone," Cas finishes heavily. 

Dean shrugs. "Yeah, guess you can say that. It's nice though. The quiet. No one bothering me. No emergencies. No worlds ending." 

He's been spending his days fishing or reading or learning new recipes and making a mess of the kitchen or taking long drives deep into the countryside, discovering the land, or lying flat on his back in a tiny, wooden boat in the middle of the lake, looking up at the clear, blue sky, slowly being lulled to sleep by the gentle waves, losing all sense of time. His nights are spent with just a beer or two and listening to old records or watching some black and white film. He has enough little projects around the house and the property to occupy the next couple months at least. He's planning to start a garden in the backyard; he thinks Cas might like that, spending time amongst the flowers and the bees, helping him pick berries to make pies for the holidays. He'll also like the stash of board games in the den. Maybe they can invite Claire and rope her into game night while she complains about how old and lame they are. He's even thinking about building and installing his own pool table sometime, lack of space be damned. They fought God and won; he thinks he can figure out how to fit a pool table into an old, slightly neglected split-level cabin. Maybe he'll teach Cas how to play one day if his brother's not around. Sammy calls every couple days to check in and he sounds good, sounds reinvigorated, after a lifetime of not enough rest and too much suffering, and there's not much left for him to complain about in the world anymore. 

"Feels like your dreams used to," Cas muses, looking out at the horizon in the distance. 

"Yeah, guess it does. Only missing one thing…" he trails off wistfully. "Come on, let's go inside. Let me show you around the place."

Dean gets back to his feet and helps Cas up, clapping him on the back and then slinging an arm loosely around his shoulders as they walk back to the lake house. 

*

At the door, they're greeted by a large, fluffy mass of shaggy white and brown fur that practically jumps into Dean's arms.

"You got a dog?" Cas asks, bemused, eyebrows shooting up. 

"Yeah, this is Miracle. Miro for short," Dean says, cuddling him close for a minute as he licks his face enthusiastically before letting him go again.

The dog comes over to Cas, sniffing at his shoes and the tails of his coat for a few moments before he determines that he's all right. 

Cas bends down in front of the dog, scratches him behind the ears, smiles. "Good to meet you, Miro," he tells him very earnestly. 

Dean just lingers there for a moment watching them, feeling the tiniest tug in his chest, breath being stolen away, before Cas rises to his feet again and meets Dean's eyes and he leads him through the rest of the small house. 

*

Dean sets Cas up with everything he might need in the spare bedroom and gets everything prepped for dinner and then he grabs a couple beers and they sit on the porch as the sun sets. Dean reclines in his chair, puts his feet up, takes a long, satisfying swig. It's different from hunting but he still feels a deep sense of accomplishment at the end of every day. Maybe just choosing your own peace and contentment is its own kind of victory. 

"When I came back, I felt… _different_ ," Cas tells him after a long moment of perfect, comfortable silence. There's a conflict etched all over his features now that wasn't there when he arrived.

"Like what? You're human now?" Dean asks, puzzled.

"I don't know," Cas says, and he even sounds unbalanced. "I'm not fully human. But I don't think I'm fully angel either. I still have my powers, most of them anyway, but I think I _feel_ things differently now. So I suppose I'm somewhere in between." 

"And that's where you wanna be? In between?" Dean says and he can't hide the edge of irritation in his voice. Dean's been happy for weeks now, the happiest he's ever been, but Cas being back and then being gone again is a wound he's not sure he can heal. Not even with a million hours spent in the sun, toes buried in the sand, living out the rest of his blissfully ordinary days without any further fear or worry encroaching on his mind or his heart, nature and humanity and the cosmos in perfect harmony for the first time, on this world he helped create. His soul's been still and at ease but it's not complete, not yet. 

"Chuck's gone. Michael and Lucifer are gone, the angels are gone... Jack doesn't need protecting anymore. You and Sam are both alive and well, evidently. I don't have any fight left, Dean. That was my only purpose for so long. Until…" Dean feels his soft gaze on his face and then he looks away again. "I just have to figure out what I want to do now. If I even belong on this world."

Dean puts his beer down with a sigh, gets up and walks over to the far edge of the porch, hands gripping the wooden railing in front of him as he looks out at the calm, slowly darkening lake. 

Cas gets up after a moment and joins him there. 

"You know, I used to think my big win, my _miracle_ , would be something huge. Like killing the Devil or beating Chuck. It's _not_. It's just _this_. It's just _existing_." Cas knew that before The Empty took him and it took Dean way too long to figure it out himself, but maybe being alive again after everything has changed him once again.

"And you're happy with this? A normal, apple-pie life?" Cas asks, sounding amused by the phrase.

"Yeah," Dean tells him firmly. "I used to think it would drive me fucking crazy. But turns out when I finally have free will, for _real_ , _this_ is all I want. And the world's in safe hands now, everything is as it should be — except for…"

Cas just regards him curiously. 

He clenches his jaw, swallows hard before he says it. "Maybe I wanna finally let myself get what I want. You know, the whole nine yards. Love. Family. _Happiness_."

He glances across at Cas out of the corner of his eye before quickly returning his gaze to the water in front of him. 

" _Oh_ ," Cas says, sounding a bit taken aback. "Well, you deserve it, Dean. After everything you've done for this world."

"Yeah, and you deserve it too," Dean says, turning to meet his gaze fixedly now.

Cas's eyes widen. 

"You mean…" he says breathlessly.

Dean takes a step closer to him and then he reaches out and takes his hand in his own, his thumb grazing lightly over Cas's knuckles. 

"You can stay. If you want. If you'll have me," he says, almost like a prayer, a plea, looking at him intently, longingly, so there's no mistaking what he's asking for. And Dean's been desperate before, he's screamed up at the heavens for someone, anyone to hear him, he's spilled his own blood and given everything, given his life, so many times for something greater — but somehow this, _them_ , here right now feels more important than anything else. This one reckless, consuming wish that feels like a tidal wave that doesn't destroy, but that leaves the earth lush and green and full of new possibility, fledgling life growing towards the sun.

"You really want that?" Cas says quietly, and he sounds beautifully, devastatingly human for the first time. Not broken like before when he knew he was gonna die, but full of pure, incandescent _hope_.

"Yeah, Cas," he rasps. "I really do."

"Well, okay then. I will," he says like it's the most simple thing in the world, like there's never been a doubt that Cas will always, always stay if Dean asks him to.

He squeezes his hand gently in his own for a moment, a slow smile blooming across his face, Cas's eyes gleaming warm and bright back at him, like the bluest summer sky. And then he lets him go and Cas follows him inside to the kitchen to make dinner.


End file.
